The use of light-weight bulkhead void fillers is well-known in the art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,132,156 presents an inverted V-shaped, light weight void filler that is comprised of two panels connected at their upper ends by a pivotable connection. The panels may be moved from a closed, side-by-side position to an open inverted V position by moving the bottom ends of the panels outwardly. The void filler relies on a limiter to prevent the panels from spreading too great of a distance and collapsing outwardly.
This type of void filler presents a serious disadvantage. If the load generated by the cargo during shipment is not distributed in a uniform manner on this prior art void filler, it has the tendency to collapse by pivoting to the closed, side-by-side configuration. Also, there exists the possibility that a piece of cargo may fall on the pivotable bulkhead void filler which could cause the filler to pivot to the closed position.
The present invention is intended to overcome or minimize all of these problems, as well as to present several other improvements.